Citi signs MoU with Chinese banks for Belt and Road related projects

Citi announced on Friday that it has signed memoranda of understanding with Bank of China Ltd and China Merchants Bank Co Ltd to strengthen cooperation between Citi and the two banks in supporting clients’ investments and projects related to the Belt and Road initiative.
Citi will work with each bank to explore potential avenues of cooperation in various fields, including cofinancing, financial products, trade, agency and trust, and capital markets.
This will include projects involving infrastructure, railways, power and energy ventures, telecom, oil and gas, and agriculture as well as sustainable development projects, which include education, environment and small to medium enterprises. Christine Lam, president and chief executive officer of Citi China, said: “We have a long track record of supporting our Chinese banking clients around the world and recently we have achieved several landmark transactions supporting the Belt and Road initiative. We look forward to continuing our century-long tradition of serving our clients by enhancing partnership and helping them realise their global ambitions.”
Citi acted as the only external global coordinator on Bank of China’s Belt and Road bond issuance three times across all tranches, having raised $10 billion (Bt310 billion) in total from international marฌkets.
A recent Ernst & Young report said China’s investments in Belt and Road economies increased in 2017 despite an overall drop in Chinese outbound direct investment of 32 per cent from the previous year, in the context of the complex global investment environment and tightened domestic regulation on cross-border investment.
Last year, Chinese companies made nonfinancial outbound direct investments of $14.4 billion in 59 economies related to the Belt and Road initiative, accounting for 12 per cent of total non-financial ODI, according to the report.